The Daily Inside Look at Grassroots and High School Basketball in the Austin/San Antonio Area. Brought to you by Coach Max Ivany, one of the Nation's most well connected and premier evaluators of Boys and Girls Talent for the College Level.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Central Texas/South Texas Spring Signings

The biggest fish from the San Antonio/Austin area for the spring signing period was landed by a Pac-10 school. Congratulations to Texas D-1 Ambassador Brandon Thompson of San Antonio Stevens who signed Monday with the Arizona State Sun Devils. Brandon has been with the Ambassadors for 5 of the last 6 seasons playing his club basketball. I've spent several hours in the past couple of days giving interviews with ESPN's Reggie Rankin and Rivals.com's Mark Reeves about not only what kind of player Brandon is, but what kind of quality person as well.Thompson spent the last couple of months working on his SAT score and was offered in successive weekends by Georgetown, Texas Tech and the Sun Devils. I'd had a score of other inquiries about him this spring as his recruitment heated up. I've known Coach Sendek for a long time as he and his staff recruited Pflugerville's Bryan Beasley back in 2005 when he was at North Carolina State. Brandon is as complete a player as they come at the high school level. he will be a tremendous combo guard. He looks to get his team mates involved, can score when needed and knows when to take over a game. He's an excellent, long armed defender who can score from the perimeter, mid range, or get to the cup. Brandon really asserted himself last summer in helping lead the Texas D-1 Ambassadors to the semifinals of the Mike Kunstadt's Denton Shootout hitting big shots at the end of two contests to win it for us at the buzzer including one against the Dallas Mustangs and Nolan Dennis (Memphis-Baylor signee) & Nick Russell (Kansas State signee). brandon will have a great career in the PAC-10. The sky is the limit for him. Congratulations to Brandon and his family from his basketball family, the Texas D-1 Ambassadors.Former Texas D-1 Ambassador Russ Permenter who signed with UT-San Antonio out of HS, decided to transfer back close to home this past season and spend a year at Temple JC. The move paid off for Big Russ as he is now headed to the rugged Big East to play for the Providence Friars.

Texas D-1 Ambassador Chris Harpe of Killeen Ellison (below) a 6'6" P has inked with Dallas Baptist UniversityCameron Catlett a 6'3" G from San Antonio Madison has signed with University of Texas-Arlington.He is also a former Texas Ambassador.

Travis Smith (below) a 6'3" WG from San Antonio Madison will take his game to Angelina (TX) Junior College. Smith played two seasons for the Texas D-1 Ambassadors.Other Area Signees

2009 G Dray Baker San Antonio Taft Temple JC (TX)

2009 P Justin Cooper San Antonio Fox Tech Temple JC

2009 P Travis Gipson San Antonio O'Connor Temple JC

2009 G Alex Lewis Converse Judson Temple JC

2009 G Rashad Miller Austin Akins Grayson JC (TX)

2009 G Josh Orta San Antonio Stevens South Plains JC (TX)

2009 P Aaron Plunkett San Antonio Stevens Navarro JC (TX)

2009 G TyRon Williams Austin Crockett Clarendon JC (TX)

2010 G Kenneth Black Round Rock Centenary (verbal)

We wish all these kids the best of luck as they pursue their hoop dreams and most importantly, their education!